A Disinterested Party
by eoraptor
Summary: A different kind of Kigo... Kim has to come to terms with something that has happened, Oneshot
1. Chapter 1

"_**A Disinterested Party"**_

By Eoraptor

_AN: Kim Possible property The Walt Disney Company ©2002-2007. Not for profit fan work._

_AN2: This is inspired by Tempest Dash's story "_Fling_" although in no way related to it. Please check it out for an alternate way of Kim dealing with her issues ala Kigo.

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She purred softly, and snuggled deeper into the warmth that she felt. It was the deepest, most wonderful sleep she could remember in a long time, and she didn't want it to end. Her body was sluggish, loose, and totally relaxed, and it felt insanely delicious, like she was made out of melted chocolate and could just be poured into the bed sheets.

Unfortunately, snuggling into the bed had the unwanted effect of putting her face directly into the sunlight that was lancing in through the window. Light that had, when falling on her neck and chest, been warm and comforting; was now harsh and irritating, and quickly it forced her to stir. Her brain processed, entirely automatically, that if the sun was high enough to hit her window over the house across the street, that it was pretty late in the morning.

Still, that unearthly calm permeated her being, and she moved slightly, easing against the warm arm above her.

Wait a minute.

Warm arm?

She only had two, right?

And they were both at her sides.

It wasn't Socrates… her golden lab was not in the bedroom. And he didn't have arms anyway.

Her body insisted that this was nothing to be concerned about, and she was inclined to agree. When she adjusted her position to relax once more, though, she found that there was a warm thigh nestled intimately between hers.

A soft tingle rolled through her lap and she purred involuntarily before settling, stilling once more and oddly enjoying the presence of that leg against her. With the sun no longer right in her face, and someone warm and comfortable draped over her, she settled back in to sink back to that melted chocolate place and slumber.

Unfortunately, her subconscious was a pesky thing. Now that it knew the sun was up, it had no intention of letting her back to sleep. Who, it asked, was in bed with her? She lived alone in her apartment, save for Socrates. Why, it further inquired, did she feel as though she had done the most demanding calisthenics program imaginable, leading to the pleasantly exhausted feeling in her limbs? Where, it demanded, were her panties and her pandaroo, two absolute prerequisites to sleep?

Kim opened her eyes slowly, the sleep crust conspiring with her languid flesh to keep them closed before they finally popped open at the insistence of her brain.

At first, the chocolate fog on her brain reminded her that she had nothing to worry about from the body that lay half atop her own, keeping her warm despite the Colorado autumn night that had just passed.

Sadly for all concerned, her subconscious was of a different opinion, and immediately began rewiring her brain for dealing with the waking world. She quickly became aware that it was not the sun in her eyes burning her vision, that the arm that was draped across her really was green.

She felt her mysterious bedmate move quietly in her own sleep, and that thigh shifted between her own legs. Kim purred softly again, but this time her reawakened brain clamped down on the response as inappropriate.

The redhead began trying to extricate herself from underneath of the person, no, the woman, atop her. She had succeeded in getting mostly free, when her bedmate moved again at the disturbance. This effectively re-tangled their limbs with Kim half out of bed, and she was send sprawling with a squawk, her head banging into the thin carpet of her bedroom floor.

There was a displeased groan from the bed, and one from Kim as she rubbed the back of her head. Her floor was pretty darned hard after all.

Sitting up and sliding her backside and legs fully off the bed, Kim looked up to the mattress.

"Mmmm…. Morning Princess." Shego purred. The purr became a soft, hungry growl as she took in the sight of the redhead before her, just naked as she was.

Kim shivered at that growl as it touched something just below the surface of her mind. She shook her head again, as the minor flush of adrenaline caused by her falling out of bed woke her fully up. She reached up and grabbed the disturbed bedspread, tugging it around herself in a sudden display of insecurity.

This only had the effect of fully uncovering Shego, who took advantage of the freedom to roll onto her side and stretch, luxuriating just like a cat in the sunlight that shone in through the window. She practically meowed at the warmth on her bared flesh as she smiled down at her former bedmate.

"Mmmm, don't tell me you're so pleasure-bent that you couldn't stand up…" She smirked.

Kim marveled at the expression on Shego's face. It wasn't her usual, deadly, wicked grin. It was more like… a sleepy, self-satisfied smile; and it was beautiful on Shego's aristocratic face.

Shaking her head hard to discharge the image, Kim sighed and pulled her dark red bedspread about herself. She looked up again at Shego, and licked her lips selfconsciously, feeling not just naked, but truly vulnerable sitting on her carpet at the side of the bed.

Sensing a change in the mood of the bedroom, Shego moved towards the edge of the bed, leaning over to watch Kimmie. "Don't tell me you're stunned to silence at how good it was…"

"I am," she whispered almost silently to herself as she reached down to touch the pink shoulder exposed by a crook of the blanket.

The faint touch electrified the redhead, and she shook her head hard again. Her eyes had been transfixed by the swell of Shego's hip, the way the morning light played off the pale flesh, and the fine, almost non-existent hair on her skin, so utterly feminine. "I- No I'm- I'm not,"

"You're not what?" Shego crooned, lightly rubbing her fingertips along the fine point of Kim's shoulder, since it was all she could reach without truly moving and dispelling the dreamy laziness she felt. "Not awake yet?"

Kim bit her lip, and fought a war inside her own skin. Part of her wanted badly to lean into the touch of those warm, surprisingly soft fingers. And part of her wanted to bolt away from them like she'd been burned. Eventually, she moved uneasily out of Shego's immediate reach and looked into the green eyes of the mercenary.

"Shego… I'm… I'm not gay." She frowned, the logical centers of her brain already disputing that statement and making her duck her head in contemplation.

The exotic woman in the bed helped the dispute out, "I'm sure anyone who happens to live downstairs would disagree with you, Pumpkin."

The salacious grin she wore faded slightly when Kim didn't deliver one of her usual retorts. With a soft sigh, she sat up, apparently unconcerned with her own nudity. "Okay… Well, that's all right."

Kim looked up from her internal debate at the words, and for the first time this morning, ignored the flesh she had felt so tantalized by seconds before. "What do you mean, that's all right?"

The alabaster-skinned woman gave her a small smile as she leaned across the bed, picking up the black blouse she had worn in the night before, "Kimmie, you're hardly the first woman on Earth to have a lesbian fling without actually being one."

The redhead chewed her lower lip, and then shook her head, "That doesn't make any sense."

"Not to you it doesn't," Shego agreed as she shrugged her bra on, reaching behind herself easilyu to fasten it. "But trust me, it's fine. Figure out what you want to tell yourself about this and you'll feel better."

Kim boggled up at the older woman openly. Five minutes ago they had been lying very relaxedly in each other's arms and now Shego said that it didn't matter…? more or less anyway. She said as much once she found her words.

"Look, I won't say I'm not a little disappointed. That's the best sex I've had in like, well, longer than I care to say," She smirked a more familiar smirk at Kim as she pulled on her red pleated skirt, and then her panties, in that order. "But I'm not about to throw some Lifetime Movie of the Week crap on you over getting laid and changing your mind later. It was just sex after all."

"Wha-?" Kim tilted her head, still wrapped in the blanket as she watched Shego roll her pantyhose up and stuff them in her purse before pulling her shoes on.

Shego sighed, apparently getting a little irritated with the confusion Kim was displaying. "Look, Princess. I know it was probably your first time with a chick, so I'll forgive the 'I ain't gay' tude. Figure out what you have to to get passed it and you'll be fine. Tell yourself whatever you want to about what happened, rationalize, deny, whatever. Just don't say I forced you. I start hearing that I raped Kim Possible and I'm coming back here in a much less forgiving mood."

"Shego! No…." Kim pursed her lips, trying to find anything to say since it looked like the one-sided conversation was drawing to a close whether she liked it or not. "I- I really don't remember what-,"

As she picked up her purse and made sure the stuffed hose didn't show, Shego smirked wickedly down at the redhead, "You will sooner or later. But if you don't want it to happen again, I'd get rid of the Bailey's under the sink."

After Shego left, Kim sat, stunned and feeling strangely alone, floor for a long time.

* * *

"Thanks for seeing me, Sharon," She blushed softly and frowned, taking her seat in the guest chair.

"Kim, you know I always have time for you. " The older woman with the round face smiled at her from her chair. She picked up a paper file and flipped it open, looking through some notes she'd made. "It has been a while though, so I was a bit surprised."

"Well, I haven't had anything I needed to talk to someone about, really," Kim shrugged a bit awkwardly.

This was, perhaps, her one concession to her adult life. Kim had found after high school, and especially in her last year of college, that living on her own was pretty different from living with her parents. She figured that everyone learned that, but then again, not everyone was under her level of stress.

Without her parents around to tell her everything was going to be all right and that she really could do anything, Kim had found her life spiraling into anger and chaos. Eventually, she had caved when Monique called her on her bitchiness over a stain on her shoe; one which had sent her into a tirade on the entire military-industrial supplier industry. She reluctantly agreed that maybe, just maybe, she needed to talk to someone. Someone who could listen with a disinterested ear instead of someone who lived her bizarre life day to day.

That was how she had gotten in touch with Sharron. Every family and general therapist she had spoken with on the phone had either immediately confessed to being ill-equipped to handle her level of weirdness, or had quickly suggested drugs as the answer.

Finally, through a stroke of luck, and a call to Global Justice's contractor assistance number, she had been given the number of Sharon Thompkins, a therapist who dealt specifically with the unique pressures of the powerful and super-powerful. Kim had been a little shocked to see Hego coming out of a session one day, but she knew then that maybe this Doctor actually might have some clue how to help her.

"So what's changed?" Sharon inquired openly, setting her pad aside.

"Well… I kinda… had sex with someone." Kim hedged, almost wincing at the confession.

"I wasn't aware you were a nun, Kimberly," Sharon chuckled lightly and shook her head. "I take it your being here means this wasn't just a casual encounter?"

"Ohhhh… you could say that…" Kim blew a long breath through her lips and leaned back, rocking a bit.

"You want to tell me his name?"

"…her name. And no…"

"Her name," Sharon confirmed after a moment. "Okay, fair enough. So, is that what's bothering you, Kim?"

"Yes! No!... I'm not sure…" Kim griped as she ran her hands through her hair.

Nodding softly, the therapist picked up her pad, tapping her pencil lightly against it in thought. "Okay, let's redirect here a bit. Instead of trying to think about this all at once… let's take it one step at a time."

Sipping her water from a paper cup she'd grabbed on her way in, Kim nodded. "Okay…"

"Alright. Is this person someone you knew previously, or was this just a hookup at a bar?"

"No… definitely not a hookup." Kim shook her head, pursing her lips softly.

"And I'm guessing since you don't want to share her name, it's not someone we've talked about before, is that a fair assessment?"

"Mmhm." Kim nodded.

"Okay. Well, so, someone you know, but not a frie-,"

"Actually," Kim interrupted, looking up from her hands toying with the cup, "It is someone we talked about, but she's also a relative of one of your other patients. I don't want there to be a… conflict."

"Kim, you know I won't tell any other person what we talk about in here, unless of course I think you or they are in immediate physical danger. Are you, or are they?" Sharon sat forward a bit.

"NO!" Kim shot back defiantly. "No… I'm sorry, didn't mean to snap. No, she's not a danger… I just don't wanna… say her name, okay?"

"Okay Kim… that's okay." She nodded. After taking a breath to clear her head, she sat back again. "What would you say bothers you more? That you had sex with a woman, or that it was this woman?"

Kim chewed her lip for a very long moment, and finally, looking up, she shrugged.

"That's okay Kim. Sex is complicated. Okay, how about this," Sharon set her pad aside and took a sip of her coffee, "is this person a friend, or an enemy? Outside of this one time, that is."

"Um……………." The redhead chewed her lip fiercely. She wasn't sure how to classify Shego, especially given only two options.

"Is that an 'Um' I don't want to say, or an 'Um" I don't know?"

"It's an 'Um' she's not really either and I'm not sure how else to describe her."

Sharon schooled her face, not showing the consternation of dancing around the mystery woman's identity, since it seemed to be at the core of this concern of Kim's. "Sorry Kim, I should know better than to describe things in black and white. It's just that usually with you; people are one or the other. Is she a professional acquaintance, or a personal one?"

"She's… a professional acquaintance, mostly." Kim fidgeted in her chair slightly.

"That's fine, Kimberly," Sharon nodded and smiled, glad for the headway, "I don't think I could call someone I had sex with a professional acquaintance either. So, you are, if not friends, at least friendly, yes?"

"Ye- yes." Kim sighed. This was every bit as hard as she'd thought it would be. And Shego's warning still burned in her ears. "We have coffee some times, and talk about old sitches."

"Old missions, you mean? I'm sorry, not missions… but old… adventures?" Sharon corrected herself. She had to remember that Kim did what she did not as part of any agency, outfit, or official group, but merely because she could.

"Yes." The former cheerleader nodded simply, sipping her water.

"All right. So, you two have history, and are friendly." Sharon summed up. "Aside from being the same sex, is there another problem here? Is this person in a committed relationship already? Or do they have some fatal medical condition that would cause a problem with having one with you?"

"Um, no… not that I know of, to either." Kim shook her head, suddenly realizing that, all things considered, she still didn't know _that much_ about Shego.

Sharon nodded and sat back, making an inconsequential tick on her note pad. "Have you ever had sexual feelings about a woman or girl before?"

"No… Um… I mean not that I… realize?" Kim fidgeted with the now empty cup. "I mean, I think some girls are pretty…"

"But you don't masturbate while thinking about them, or feel romantically inclined towards any woman you have ever met in the past."

Kim yelped and felt her face heat with embarrassment.

Sharon laughed softly, "See Kim, that's about the worst you could be worried about here from what I can tell. But I haven't heard you talk about any attractions to women in the past, just men. Were your parents against those sorts of relations?"

"No!" Kim instantly leapt to defend the open-mindedness.

"And you told me once you weren't even certain on 'the whole religion thing'," Sharon read verbatim from one of her first sets of notes. Looking up, she smiled. "I'm going to go out on a limb here, Kim, and say that not as much concerned with the idea of sleeping with any woman, because you really don't. You're confused about why you did, but you're really concerned with why you slept with_ this_ woman. But, it's kind of hard to tackle running a marathon when you are just learning to walk, so, let's start with the beginning."

Sitting back and sipping her coffee, Sharon pursed her lips, realizing it had gone cold, and made a face. Shaking her head, she refocused. "Kim, would you say you're bisexual?"

"No? but… I slept with…"

"I asked what you thought Kim. Aside from this woman, do you feel attracted to female people in general, or even very effeminate men?"

Kim pursed her lips, and thought long and hard about that question. She did this despite the fact that she desperately wished there was a black hole in her sweat shirt which would devour her before she could find the answer or divulge it.

"N- no, no I don't."

Sharon nodded a bit. "Kim, let's be frank here. Sexuality is no more black and white than anything else in this world. I remember very well a few years ago your arch nemesis helped you to save the world from the Lorwardians. A truly evil person wouldn't have done that. And I also remember when you told me your friend Tara slept with your boyfriend, despite your protestations that she was a saint."

"But what does that have to-," Kim trailed off after a moment, unable to find words that she felt weren't entirely derogatory towards Shego.

"To do with you being heterosexual, but having sex with one woman? Nothing." Sharon smiled, nodding. "Now, this is just my personal take on things Kim, not a professional opinion backed by years of clinical trials; but I don't think there are many people out there who are truly straight, or truly gay."

"But I'm straight." Kim protested weakly.

"And I'm one eighth Cherokee, but I still fill out my census forms as Caucasian: non-hispanic." The therapist chuckled softly at the metaphor. "Just like with good and evil, I think that almost everyone is somewhere in the middle, which would _technically_ be bisexual, but that they fall close enough to one area or another to say that they are specifically heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. The other classifications are just… well… too complicated to consider in the forty-five minutes we usually have."

Kim didn't feel entirely, or even nearly, convinced. But, a small voice in the back of her head told her it was at least more sensible than the "every girl experiments" response she had gotten from Bonnie when she had casually probed the heiress on same-sex dalliances.

Fortunately, Bonnie was shallow enough to think Kim was asking about that rumor involving her, Tara, and a bar of soap, and not anything personal.

Kim came out of her consideration after a few minutes, realizing time in the real world was still moving forward. "Sorry, its… a lot to digest."

"I know it is. Kim, I think you're concerned because this is a huge change in the status of your relations with this other person. You don't strike me as someone who would come unglued at the merest allusions that you were anything other than a good or straight girl. I know, after all, how you reacted to those rumors about the heiress to the Senior Rockwaller fortune and you having been more than cheerleading teammates."

"Well, those were rumors, I knew they weren't true." Kim sniffed.

"Okay, let's not get into a circle on the illusion of same sex relations Vs the occurrence of it," Sharon prompted. She knew Kim was sometimes prone to obsessing on some small detail instead of looking at the big picture, and by now she could detect that coming in the girl's thoughts. "Kim, the one questions you should be asking yourself is this. Did sex with this other woman mean anything more to you than just having sex with a woman? If it did, how will that affect your relationship, working or otherwise, with this person?"

"But if I don't want it to change?" Kim chewed her lip and fumbled with the empty paper cup again.

Sharon sighed apologetically. "Denial is not just a river on the planet you've saved a few times Kim. The old adage is very true; sex changes things. The only thing you can ask is how much it will change things."

"Um… what are the options?" Kim asked, suddenly realizing that she honestly had no idea what she and Shego _could _be.

Sharon was prepared for this. With the vast majority of her clientele, they already knew the answer to whatever question they posed, and were just looking for someone to approve or disapprove of it. In Kim's case, though, the therapist knew that Kim lived in something of a self-imposed bubble, and definitely had a bit of an obsessive streak that helped to maintain that bubble.

So, when Kim Possible asked what her therapist thought, she was genuinely asking for some input instead of a pros and cons discussion.

"Well Kim… You can always try to go back to the way things were before that night. If this other woman is willing to accept that, but of course, it won't ever be quite the same. Still, it can be done. You're still close friends with Ron after almost marrying him. And I still trust my ex-husband more than anyone in the world." Sharon nodded as she tapped her pencil on the pad before her. "You could also try to have a romantic relationship with this person, though you seem not yet to know if this other person is even truly a friend, let alone someone you want to have that kind of involvement with. And of course, the third option would be to have a purely psycho-sexual relationship with this person."

"Okay… Um, you lost me there Sharon… that sounds like… brain sex?" Kim's consternation caused her brow to furrow as she tried to figure out the new technical term.

"Well, the common term would be a bed buddy." The therapist nodded, "Though I don't recommend it. Trying to be strictly friends with someone while having sex with them rarely works. Sooner or later, one party forms an attachment beyond friendship, at least in my experience."

"Okay, friends who once upon a time had sex… a girlfriend, or… that other thing…" Kim frowned, her forehead creased. After a long moment, she let go a deep breath and sighed. "Well, that's at least more than I came in here with…"

Sharon smiled and nodded, setting her packet aside. "And you didn't have to ask your friends a lot of awkward questions that they would immediately piece together and start hounding you about."

"Which is why they pay you the big bucks," Kim smiled a bit easier, despite her conundrum. "Thank you

a lot Sharon."

"No problem Kim… would you like to make another appointment on your way out?"

Kim arched a brow slightly, and inclined her head, "That might not be a bad idea."

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_Thanks for reading, please follow the three R's; **READ, REVIEW, RECOMMEND**_


	2. Chapter 2

"_**A Disinterested Party" **__chapter 2_

By Eoraptor

_AN: Kim Possible property The Walt Disney Company ©2002-2007. Not for profit fan work.

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Shego glared at her cellphone, and was half temped to incinerate it without even looking at the ID. Who on Earth had the nerve to call her at…

"Ugh… Ten-thirty A.M." She groaned as she caught sight of her green LED alarm clock. She reached for the curtains; but thought better of it a moment later, noting the strength of the sun just peeking under them. "Okay, so who's got the great granite stones to call me when I haven't slept?"

Turning the offending phone over to see the name of the soon-to-be deceased, she rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Yeah… she's definitely got them."

"Yeah? What the fuck do you want?" she grumbled into the phone after opening it and pressing it to the side of her throbbing head.

"…"

"Try that again, but add at least two hours and you pick up the tab." She growled and rolled her eyes at the thought of dragging herself from the bed she had tried to sleep in.

"…"

"Okay, yeah, that's a bit more doable." She snorted, already starting to stir at the promise of free drink. "Yes _Mommy_… I'll shower first. Geebus you're such a nag sometimes."

"…"

"Yeah, and you're another!"

Shego clipped the phone closed with more force than was strictly necessary before reluctantly throwing the covers off of herself.

- - - - - -

"Sharon."

"Beth."

Whoever happened to know the two thirty-something women sitting down in the coffee shop would probably be asking themselves why a critical case psychotherapist and a special operations mercenary were chummily having coffee. Of course, anyone who would know both a merc and a shrink would be few and far between, and not likely to be having coffee in Upperton anyway.

"Your menus Miss Thompkins, Miss Ramirez." The familiar server dropped off a list of so many coffees and treats that it required three laminated pages.

"You look like shit, Beth." Sharon smirked and picked up her menu.

"You talk to your patients with that mouth, Sharon?" Shego matched her long-time friend's smirk with a nearly identical one of her own. The aforementioned observer who might know both women would wonder just whom had originated that smirk in the first place.

"If I did, I'd be a lot more bland when it came to you." Sharon chuckled softly and shook her head. "You know I have to blow of my steam somewhere… I can't be Doctor Sharon all the time any more than you can be Shego the hard ass. So, you want to tell me which party put those bags under your eyes? I could seriously use a good one."

"Yeah, party," Beth Ramirez mused wearily, sighing into her menu.

Her slightly rounder friend arched a brow and looked up. "I know that voice, Bethany. So, how many days since he's called?"

"We've had this talk before Sharon… I'm not a patient, don't try to analyze me." Beth grumbled and tried to concentrate on her menu of coffee drinks.

"Yeah… and we've also had the talk where I tell you to differentiate between when your shrink asks you something and when your friend does." Sharon rolled her eyes and blew out an exasperated breath. "Except that even _I_ wouldn't take _you_ on as a client."

"Fine…" Beth groaned heavily, rolling her stiff neck from side to side, trying to relieve the knots. "_She_ hasn't called in a little over a week, my _friend_."

"_She_, huh?" Sharon arched a brow salaciously and leaned forward a bit, "I thought you gave up on women after the misadventures of Betty and Beth during Sophomore year?"

"And I have again," the meteor mercenary grumbled, heaving her chin into her hands and muttering against her fingers. "It was just a _stupid_ mistake."

"You say that, and yet… you look like you haven't slept in at least a few days, Miss Hard Ass. So obviously this was a pretty profound mistake. How big a mistake we talking here? That cheerleader whose name I could never remember, or Bobby Grimm?" Sharon leaned forward onto her own hands, her coffee ordering momentarily forgotten.

The mercenary known as Shego winced slightly at the word 'cheerleader,' until she realized that her college roommate was talking about an older liaison, and not the most recent one. With a weary sigh, she sat up and cracked her neck audibly, eliciting a wince from her table mate.

"Oh, not like either one of those, though probably a little closer to old Bobblehead Bobby." Shego sighed at the mention of her long-ago activist boyfriend, the one who could never commit to one particular cause for more than a few minutes. "Whatever happened to him anyway?"

Sharon laughed softly, "Last I had heard, he was working for some outfit out of Alaska, had a show on the Knowledge Channel chasing illegal whalers." She rolled her eyes, loathed to admit she had actually watched an episode of the melodrama. "Oh God! Don't tell me you fell for another world saver type!"

The psychotherapist knew her one-time child development roommate too well. In three years of college classes, Beth had dated two Criminal Law majors, one Political Science type, and then there was that thing with the Environmental Sciences major-slash-cheerleader. She had no idea how it worked, since it was beyond even her own powers of analysis; but the iconoclastic Beth Ramirez, who abhorred both order and charity and was as mercenary in mindset as they came, always fell hard for the altruistic ones.

"It's that fucking red hair… It has to be." The faintly green woman bemoaned, and then pointed to the house special for the waiter, waiting for Sharron to order before continuing.

"Why do you think I went blonde a week after I met you?" Sharon smirked wryly and flipped a hand through her once-more red locks, indicating her order to the waiter also before handing him the menus. "You always had a weakness for gingers, and I don't happen to swing that way."

"A shame…" Shego smirked weakly as she sat back and ran her hands through her thick hair. "A therapist girlfriend might have kept me on the straight and narrow."

"Oh, right." Sharon rolled her eyes and flicked her fingers dismissively, "You, of anyone, should know there is no relationship more fucked up than one shared with a psychoanalyst."

"That's certainly what Leonard Markov said after you threw that crystal flower vase at him!" Shego quipped and grinned.

Taking a sip of her coffee when it arrived, the jovial woman sighed as it melted across her tongue and slipped down her throat. "So… gonna get this one out of your head any time soon, Sparky?"

"Honestly, Blondie, I'm not sure…" Beth let go a reluctant breath. "I tried to tell myself it was just a good screw,"

"Was it?" Sharon grinned wickedly, always up for tales of debauchery no matter the orientation.

"It was too good a screw," moaning into her coffee cup, the former criminal growled. "Trashy romance novel good…"

"Oh-ho…" the therapist to the powerful arched a brow, "I haven't heard you talk like that since Bobby. You got it bad, Sheegy. You try to tell her it was _just_ sex too?"

"Don't remind me." Beth muttered around a sip of caffeine. "But she's young and stupid. Well, young anyway. And no, before you ask, not THAT young. I'm a Child Development major, not a pedophile. Just… young_er_."

Sharon chuckled as her trademark jab was cut off before she could utter it. "Young and stupid huh? Sounds more like my type, except for the whole no-dick-thing. She got a brother?"

"Oh shut up!" She threw a napkin at Sharon and rolled her unnaturally green eyes. "And, yes, she has brothers, you masochist. You know what I mean by young and stupid, don't pretend you don't..."

"You're starting to sound like your mother." Sharon supplied smoothly.

"You leave my mother out of this, Freud." Beth snarked and laughed. "But, she's… I dunno! You remember how you were in like, Junior High? Asking a friend to ask someone out for you cause you couldn't do it yourself?"

"We didn't know each other in Junior High, Beth." The off-duty therapist chuckled, "But yeah, I know what you mean. So what, she's still stuck at that point?"

"I don't know… when I woke up, she was trying to sneak off… I think anyways." The mercenary sipped her coffee drink slowly, contemplating. "From her own apartment no less. But, in as long as I've known her, she's never been one to sneak out. Sneak in maybe… but never out."

A cinnamon brow arched at this. It was just as quickly, if comically, brought down by a minty fingertip pushing on it. Dr. Thompkins laughed softly at the non-verbal exchange. "So, you knew this woman before now? How long? Since the bad days?"

"Yeah, since the bad days," Shego supplied, substituting the banal label for her past days as a criminal.

"The Bad Days" was the time during which she and her best friend had not spoken, having very different world views. Beth "Shego" Ramirez had, of course, worked for global domination, while her former college roommate, Sharon Thompkins had become therapist, analyst, and profiler to many of the people tasked with catching her. It was a hard time on both, since they had been fierce friends before Beth's fall to the dark side.

Sharon held that Beth let her issues with her brothers drive her to the edge; but then again, she couldn't fault her at least in being pushed over that edge. Her brother kept pressing her and pressuring her to give up her education and return to Go City. This in turn drove Miss Ramirez the child development student and TA further into her already pragmatic, mercenary mindset, and warped her identity as Shego into something darker than the old Team Go heroine. Eventually, in the dark of an October night, Beth had screamed and bolted after answering the ringing phone.

It was an age before Caller ID was widespread on college campuses, so Sharon could only assume, rightly so it turned out, that it was Martin "Hego" Ramirez, calling to demand her help in fighting some villain or other. She learned a few days later that "Shego" had indeed gone to help… She helped The Defenestrator defeat Team Go, and then vanished into the criminal underworld.

Sharon was thankful that her friend had finally returned, if not to heroing, at least to the lighter side after the Alien Invasion of a few years ago. They were able to let bygones be bygone and return to friendship, beginning with these little coffee outings. Sharon had needed it as much as Beth; she'd been getting a bit too closed off in her world of heavy confidentialities, and the snarky, foul-mouthed mercenary helped to ground her on how pompous some of them could really be.

"Wow… so you knew this confused ecologist back when you were a bitch on wheels, and she still keeps in touch with you? Must be about as stubborn as you are, Sparky."

"You got no idea, Blondie." Beth sighed wearily again. "I almost wonder if she's not just keeping an eye on me, except that… when we talk, it's not like she's probing me, she's just reliving the old days."

"And did you have the hots for her in the bad days too?" Sharon was genuinely curious now. She didn't remember her friend being this perturbed over a paramour since she forced herself to come to terms over her bobble-headed ADD boyfriend not being able to focus on their relationship the way she wanted.

"Oh _GOD_ no! She was a righteous little punk back then. Thank God she's mellowed since getting out into the world, or I'd a' killed her myself." Shego laughed morosely, and then stopped, looking up. "Okay, why are we still talking about this shit?"

"Cause, I got no fucking love-life, so I'm living vicariously through yours." Sharon smirked archly. "And because you're better than a soap opera any day of the week when it comes to twisted plots."

"Yeah… I think I'm done entertaining you for one day." Shego rolled her eyes good-naturedly, and then yawned, stretching back in her side of the booth and arching, "Besides, I feel a nap coming on, and I'd rather be at home on my leather couch when it finally hits."

"Well, sleep well," Sharon nodded amiably, again paying attention to the bags under Beth's eyes. "I don't need to see you in for nervous breakdowns and sleep deprivation any more than you want to be brought in.

"If it came down to that, I'd slam a bottle of vodka and a few Tylenol first." Shego snorted and gave a limp-wristed wave before taking her coffee and slipping out of the booth.

"Hey! No fair bringing up college adventures!" the redhead whined plaintively, and then sighed, finishing off her coffee. "Besides, you took the bottle away from me before I got through more than half!"

"Just keep telling yourself that, Blondie!"

"I fully intend to, Sparky. Denial is just a river on the planet you saved!"

The response she received as a predictable finger and the off duty therapist chuckled heavily, shaking her head.

- - - - - -

A few minutes later, Sharon settled into the driver's seat of her car and slid her key into the ignition.

"What are we going to do with you, Beth?" Sharon chuckled to herself and tapped her fingers on the wheel. "Redhead, world saver, energetic… stubborn enough to hang on for years… Everything you could never resist. Hell, she was probably a freaking cheerlea-…"

Sharon almost fell out of her seat. Only the seatbelt stopped her from falling out the open door and onto the asphalt.

A younger redhead hero type, who was unsure about her feelings for Beth, but whom was stubborn enough to still be talking to her even after the bad days…

A client who had had an encounter with a woman she said was a relative of one of Sharon's other clients, and was incredibly unsure of what to think about it, but seemingly unafraid of the ramifications…

The therapist smacked her head repeatedly against the seat and rubbed her face. "Shit… well, I'm either about to do the greatest study ever on Opposites Attract… or make about a dozen ethics violations."

* * *

AN: part two, long delayed and long in draft form. **Read, Review, and Recommend** _Please_


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